Anesthesiology Blogs This is an OPML file. It can be used to export all the MedWorm RSS feeds on this topic into your personal RSS reader (usually you have to save this file to your own computer before clicking on an Import OPML command in your own feed reader to upload the file which will then import all the feeds) or it can be used by webmasters to integrate MedWorm feeds with their own website. This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader, such as GoogleReader, or to display this data on your own website or blog. Subscribe to this data using MyMedWorm.Subscribe to this data using GoogleReader.Subscribe to this data using Bloglines.Subscribe to this data using MyYahoo.

This page shows you the most recent publications within this specialty of the MedWorm directory. This is page number 33.

EEG Used to Make an Absurd Torture Device
Harcos Laboratories, a small company that normally makes silly energy drinks like Bloodlust, coincidentally a fun gift for the anesthesiologist in your clinic, has created an even more ridiculous product. Although not for sale, the plans to make your own Most Painful Toy Hack Ever are readily available, no doubt accompanied by a list of disclaimers. Essentially it's an EEG that electroshocks you if you concentrate too much on something. It's painful enough to watch and it'll probably turn someone insane within a very short amount of time. So why are we writing about it? Because you just love to read about it. Now for the ...
Source: Medgadget - March 4, 2010 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Michael Source Type: blogs

Journal Scan – Calcium Imaging in Auditory and Visual Cortex
A few papers on in vivo calcium imaging have just come out and are worth a careful read. The first two examine the fine organization of layer 2/3 of the mouse auditory cortex. The canonical view of auditory cortex organization is that neurons are arranged in a tonotopic pattern, with a smooth gradient in auditory frequency tuning across the surface of the cortex. Using two-photon imaging in anesthetized mice, the groups saw that, while there was an overall gradient, the tuning of neighboring neurons was highly variable. These are similar results to what Sato et al and Kerr et al found in the whisker barrel cortex bac...
Source: Brain Windows - March 4, 2010 Category: Neurologists Authors: andrewhires Tags: Calcium Multiphoton visual cortex auditory calcium imaging Fluo-4 GECI in vivo OGB1 Source Type: blogs

Cocaine, surgery and an experiment too far
This article is a rambling, incoherent paper that is a testament to the addicted debilitated state that Halsted had reached. The first sentence of that article reads as follows: "Neither indifferent as to which of how many possibilities may best explain, nor yet at a loss to comprehend, why surgeons have, and that so many, quite without discredit, could have exhibited scarcely any interest in what, as a local anesthetic, had been supposed, if not declared, by most so very sure to prove, especially to them, attractive, still I do not think that this circumstance, or some sense of obligation to rescue fragmentary reputation ...
Source: Mind Hacks - March 4, 2010 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Tags: Remembering Source Type: blogs

doctors who operated on themselves.
From Listverse comes two cases of extreme DIY surgery: Dr. Evan O’Neill Kane: “Dr. Evan O’Neill Kane was a pioneer in the medical profession and chief surgeon of New York City’s Kane Summit Hospital. Kane wanted to prove to the world that general anesthesia was often unnecessary for minor operations. He used himself for a test case and operated on himself removing his own appendix using only local anesthetic. Dr. Kane propped himself up on the operating table with a mirror over his abdomen and three other doctors in the operating room as backup. Kane made the large incision needed to remove the appendix and h...
Source: impactEDnurse - March 3, 2010 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: Features Source Type: blogs

Moving Pains and More MedBlog Finds
Sorry if things have been a bit quiet around here lately. I'm in the midst of a blog makeover as I migrate from Blogger to Wordpress. Being both an idiot and a cheapskate, I'm trying to do all the work myself, which is beginning to suck away both my time and my energy. But I love how the new site is looking, and hopefully so will you. You can expect to find all the recipes compiled and categorized, travelogue links and lots of medical info that will hopefully be more accessible than it is now via the blog archives.At the moment, however, I'm crashed over at Wordpress. This nice Headway theme I found that seemed so ea...
Source: The Blog That Ate Manhattan - March 2, 2010 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Margaret Polaneczky, MD (aka TBTAM) Source Type: blogs

Jiffy Tubes
The WebMD Health Exchange Talk about where you get your health care in the Cold and Flu Exchange The delivery of medicine has rapidly changed. In the past, people would establish themselves with a general practitioner (primary care provider) in their community and stick with them for a long, long time. Because people rarely stay in the same place very long anymore, change jobs, and change insurance coverage, many people are now relying on free-standing medical clinics, popping up in pharmacies, big box stores, and strip malls everywhere.I had the distinct pleasure of working in one of these so-called "Doc in the Boxes" nea...
Source: All Ears - March 1, 2010 Category: Physician Assistants Authors: Rod Moser_PA_PhD Source Type: blogs

FDA Doesn’t Like Brochure on OraVerse by Novalar
Dentalblogs has covered OraVerse in previous posts. The drug is intended to reverse the effects of local anesthesia quickly so that patients promptly regain feeling in areas made numb during dental procedures. On February 26th, xconomy San Diego published an article that tells us the FDA is not pleased with a marketing brochure published by Novalar. The FDA instructed Novalar, maker of OraVerse, to amend the drug brochure. Read the letter here. The FDA claims that the brochure minimizes and omits risks and overstates benefits of OraVerse. Issues such as pain at the injection site, headache, and pain following a dental proc...
Source: dental blog for dentists about dentistry - March 1, 2010 Category: Dentists Authors: Administrator Tags: Uncategorized dental anesthesia reversal dental news dentistry news fda and oraverse fda letter to novaclar novaclar brochure oraverse brochure oraverse by novaclar Source Type: blogs

Thoughts for the Day…
Just Call Me Flaky… Just file this under the “it’s always something” title. I’ve been using Head and Shoulder’s Intensive Care dandruff shampoo for years now. Well, this week it decided to no longer work and I’ve had an especially acute breakout of dandruff. Mom looked at my head last night and excitedly said, “You’ve got to go to the dermatologist!” She loves doctor’s appointments. Dad groaned. This comes on the heels of me relenting and deciding to get this troublesome wisdom tooth pulled on the condition I go to a dentist down in Columbus, Georgia that uses anesthesia. ...
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - March 1, 2010 Category: Mental Illness Tags: Mom and Me medical matters Work Related Issues George and the Gang Model Railroading Source Type: blogs

Fairfax Radiology Malpractice Case Results - Family awarded 1.25$ Million Dollars
(FAIRFAX, VA) -- In a heated malpractice trial, the jury rules in favor of the plaintiff and against the radiology practice resulting in an award of $1.25 million dollars. The case surrounds a patient who had suffered from severe chest pain and underwent CT which was interpreted by the radiologist as a large hiatal hernia but ultimately turned out to be a perforated esophagus. The perforated esophagus was picked up by a surgeon upon re-review of the CT scan per various news sources. Surgery was immediately scheduled but the patient then suffered a cardiac arrest during pre-op anesthesia during epidural catheter placement. ...
Source: radRounds - February 28, 2010 Category: Radiologists Authors: radRounds Radiology Network Source Type: blogs

SurgeXperience 318 – Call for Submissions
SurgeXperiences 318 will make a trip Down Under to Life in the Fast Lane on March 7th. Life in the Fast Lane was born out of an intense desire to procrastinate.. Australian emergency physicians exploring the changing world of elearning, critical care and toxicology through clinical cases, fictionalized anecdotes and medical satire. Our team was born out of passionate (and usually unresolved) debate pertaining to the elements of eLearning; medical education; medical history; political ambiguity; information sharing; the open source era and the ethos of web 2.0. SurgeXperiences is a blog carnival about surgical blogs. I...
Source: Suture for a Living - February 28, 2010 Category: Plastic Surgeons Tags: surgeXperiences Source Type: blogs

The Haiti earthquake and its broken health infrastructure
by Erin Marcus, MD Dr. Barth Green co-founded Project Medishare, which has worked in Haiti for two decades. He led the first team of U.S. physicians to Port-au-Prince after the earthquake and, together with the University of Miami’s Global Institute, spearheaded the development of a 240-bed tent hospital that is now the country’s largest functioning urgent care hospital. His group is working with the U.S. government to establish Haiti’s first rehabilitation hospital. Green spoke with Erin N. Marcus on Feb. 5th. How would you describe the country’s health infrastructure before the earthquake? There are wonderful doc...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - February 27, 2010 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Kevin Tags: hospital emergency Source Type: blogs

Subliminal cigarette marketing
The Tobacco Documents Library is an online database of millions of tobacco industry documents made public through court cases. Included are letters written to cigarette companies including several where the public have complained about 'subliminal messages' hidden in adverts. Quite frankly, they are a joy to read, and this is my favourite among many hidden gems. It's a letter from an organisation called Morality in Marketing to the makers of Camel cigarettes: Dear Mr. Johnston While at first we were enchanted with your popular new advertising campaign featuring head-shots of a "cool camel,' in the course of an in-dept...
Source: Mind Hacks - February 27, 2010 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Tags: advertising Source Type: blogs

Replacement versus repair of defective restorations in adults: resin composite.
CONCLUSIONS: There are no published randomised controlled clinical trials relevant to this review question. There is therefore a need for methodologically sound randomised controlled clinical trials that are reported according to the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement (www.consort-statement.org/). Further research also needs to explore qualitatively the views of patients on repairing versus replacement and investigate themes around pain, anxiety and distress, time and costs.
Source: Dental Technology Blog - February 26, 2010 Category: Dentists Source Type: blogs

Too Many in U.S. Fear and Avoid Dentists
Fear of dentists seems to be universal. We all know people who are afraid to go see a dentist. Some people may have been traumatized while in a dentist’s chair earlier in life, some may have unknowingly developed their fear from the adults around them, or maybe they are just afraid. No matter the reason, although they may be afraid and delay trips to the dentist, they most likely end up going to have the necessary procedures done. However, there are many who are so afraid that they never go to the dentist, despite the condition of their teeth and this is a serious issue that has to be addressed. Dental care is more t...
Source: A Hearty Life - February 25, 2010 Category: Nurses Authors: Marijke Durning, RN Tags: Diseases & Conditions afraid of dentists dental phobia dental-care dental-health Oral cancers sedation dentistry Source Type: blogs

The invasion of Haiti by well-intentioned but useless woo continues apace
Pity the poor Haitians. Not only is their nation dirt poor, but to kick off 2010, they suffered an earthquake that killed approximately a quarter of a million people, left at least 300,000 injured, and resulted in 1,000,000 homeless. Huge swaths of its capital of Port au Prince and Léogâne, among other cities, had been leveled. The devastation was (and remains) almost beyond comprehension, and it will be years, if not decades, before Haiti can recover. Disease and hunger are rampant. In the immediate aftermath, looting and violence were common. Unfortunately, disaster seems to attract quacks as nectar attracts hummingb...
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 25, 2010 Category: Surgeons Tags: Medicine Source Type: blogs

The invasion of Haiti by well-intentioned but useless woo continues
Pity the poor Haitians. Not only is their nation dirt poor, but to kick off 2010, they suffered an earthquake that killed approximately a quarter of a million people, left at least 300,000 injured, and resulted in 1,000,000 homeless. Huge swaths of its capital of Port au Prince and Léogâne, among other cities, had been leveled. The devastation was (and remains) almost beyond comprehension, and it will be years, if not decades, before Haiti can recover. Disease and hunger are rampant. In the immediate aftermath, looting and violence were common. Unfortunately, disaster seems to attract quacks as nectar attracts hummingb...
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 25, 2010 Category: Surgeons Tags: Medicine Source Type: blogs

EMR Deployment as One of the Catalysts for a Hospital-Physician Feud
The relationship between hospital executives and the physicians admitting patients to community hospitals has been undergoing significant changes lately. The deployment of an EMR in a hospital, particularly one not appealing to physicians, is one such change than can flare into outright warfare. Below is an excerpt from an article discussing such a scenario (see: from HIStalk):Re: articles in Racine, WI paper about All Saints. Doctors are not happy with administration and a number may leave.” Doctors and administrators are feuding, with a third of the medical staff ready to bolt. The final straw, apparently, was the hosp...
Source: Lab Soft News - February 25, 2010 Category: Pathologists Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Electronic Medical Record Healthcare Business Healthcare Information Technology Hospitals and Healthcare Delivery Source Type: blogs

Amelia in the hospital again
Quite unexpectedly, we are back in the hospital with Amelia again today. She has had a bad couple of days, as I've written here. She is having what may be some partial, or focal, seizures. She is also having an increase of symptoms that indicate a climbing pressure surrounding her brain. She was admitted primarily for testing, and to evaluate how stable her neurologic status is in a safer setting. Today she had a short EEG (electroencephalogram) to get a baseline of her brain wave patterns under certain conditions. She did not have any seizure activity during the test, although she wasn't really expected to. The test was t...
Source: Turquoise Gates - February 24, 2010 Category: Cancer Tags: prayer request Amelia hospital encephalitis Source Type: blogs

Fertility docs using their own sperm to impregnate unsuspecting women
I came across this story in the Center for Bioethics and Culture's 2009 Winners and Losers. Dr. Ben Ramaley was a "loser" for allegedly using his own sperm to artificially inseminate a woman in his care. The woman and her husband did not know of the switch but became wary when their twins were suspiciously fair-skinned. The father is African-American. Dr. Ramaley denies the charge.A quick search over the Internet turns up other cases where fertility doctors were found to have impregnated women using their own sperm. It has been confirmed that Dr. Fortier of Las Vegas used his own sperm to impregnate at ...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - February 24, 2010 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Reproductive Technologies Source Type: blogs

New books received this week
Basic guide to medical emergencies in the dental practice / Phil Jevon. Chichester, West Sussex ; Ames, Iowa : Blackwell Pub., 2010.A must have book for all dental care professionals. Written in a clear and accessible style, chapters cover such key topics as patient assessment, adult resuscitation, respiratory and cardiac disorders, paediatric emergencies, emergency equipment and law and ethics. Fundamentals of anaesthesia / edited by Tim Smith (et al). 3rd ed. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2009.Fully updated with a number of completely new chapters. Presentation of information is clear and concise, with extensiv...
Source: DentistryLibrary@Sydney - February 24, 2010 Category: Dentists Tags: New books Source Type: blogs

ACNM Issues Statement Supporting Use of Nitrous Oxide in Labor
The American College of Nurse-Midwives has posted a new position statement on nitrous oxide for labor analgesia [PDF], stating: “It is the position of the American College of Nurse‐Midwives that women should have access to a variety of measures to assist them in coping with the challenges of labor.” The ACNM notes that a blend of inhaled nitrous oxide and oxygen is used for pain relief in labor in many other countries, but it not typically available in the United States, where epidural anesthesia and systemic opioids are more common. Potential benefits of nitrous oxide are outlined in the document, including ...
Source: Our Bodies Our Blog - February 24, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Rachel Tags: Pregnancy & Childbirth Source Type: blogs

Awake Tummy Tuck? Scary...
Should you consider having your tummy tuck awake? According to an article by The Plastic Surgery Channel a physician in San Antonio, TX is advertising an awake tummy tuck. No general anesthesia is used, just a light sedation and local anesthetics. In fact, you can make conversation with the doctor while she's cutting open your abdomen! The article mentions that she's not a real plastic surgeon, but trained in Family and Emergency Medicine. Scary! I perform an average of one tummy tuck a week, and I wouldn't wish an awake tummy tuck on my worst enemy, a.k.a. Dr. Richard Hainer :) While local anesthetics can work for smalle...
Source: Celebrity Cosmetic Surgery - February 23, 2010 Category: Plastic Surgeons Authors: Dr. Tony Youn Source Type: blogs

Doc Pleads Guilty In Pfizer Fraud Case
Scott Reuben, who was accused of faking research for a dozen years in published studies that suggested after-surgery benefits from Vioxx and Celebrex, pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of federal health care fraud. The 51-year-old anesthesiologist will have to repay $361,932 in research grants and forfeit assets worth at least $50,000 as penalty, the Associated Press reports. Prosecutors alleged the former chief of acute pain at Baystate Medical Center received grants from various drugmakers but never performed the studies, fabricated patient data and submitted info to anesthesiology journals that was unwittingly publi...
Source: Pharmalot - February 23, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Bextra Celebrex Effexor Lyrica Merck Pfizer Scott Reuben Wyeth Source Type: blogs

10 Profit Centers Your Practice Should Focus On
The following is a guest post by Debbie Seidel-Bittke. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here. When you see the words “the business of dental hygiene” what do you imagine? Perhaps you see a treadmill where high volume and financial reward are the main focus of the dental hygiene department? Or do you see a hygiene department where quality patient care and profitability are congruent, operating with systems and protocols that would not allow one to compromise the other? A Paradigm Shift During the past ten+ years the goal of helping our patients has now progressed from trea...
Source: Dental Heroes - February 22, 2010 Category: Dentists Authors: Debbie Seidel-Bittke Tags: Practice management Source Type: blogs

SurgeXperiences 317 is Up!
Jeffrey, Vagus surgicalis, is the host of this edition of SurgeXperiences. Here is the beginning of this edition which you can read here. (photo credit) Welcome to yet another fortnight of SurgeXperiences, where we feature several blog articles which might be of interest to surgeons, anesthesiologists, scrub nurses, nurses, students, techs, or just about anyone who is fascinated by the surgical discipline – where one has to cut to cure and heal. The host of the next edition (318) has not been announced, but don’t let that keep you from making your submissions. Be sure to make your submissions by the deadline: mid...
Source: Suture for a Living - February 22, 2010 Category: Plastic Surgeons Tags: Blogging surgeXperiences Source Type: blogs

SurgeXperiences 317
Welcome to yet another fortnight of SurgeXperiences, where we feature several blog articles which might be of interest to surgeons, anesthesiologists, scrub nurses, nurses, students, techs, or just about anyone who is fascinated by the surgical discipline – where one has to cut to cure and heal. I have decided to leave out research articles as they can be found easily on the various surgical journals, that is of course, a blogger has decided to blog about it. The following is a caveat of posts featured in order of submission: Bongi, master story teller, recently nominated for best medical literary blog 2010 (i hope ...
Source: monash medical student - February 22, 2010 Category: Medical Students Authors: Jeffrey Tags: SurgeXperiences Surgery Source Type: blogs

Sunday News Round-Up – Short Sunny Day Edition
There are lots of great links up in the Ninth Carnival of Feminist Parenting, including links on sex ed, pregnancy, disability, violence against women, body image and more. Also, 14th Carnival of Feminists is up and focused on social justice organizing. Robin Marty has a round-up of some abortion-related laws proposed in the states this legislative session. A conference I didn’t know about and now really want to attend: From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom (April 9-11 in Amherst, MA). Applications for travel/housing stipends are due on the 24th of this month. [hat t...
Source: Women's Health News - February 21, 2010 Category: Medical Librarians Authors: Rachel Tags: Abortion Access, Rights, & Choice Breastfeeding Drugs Ethics Events & Observances HIV/AIDS News Round-Ups conferences parenting Source Type: blogs

Dystrophinopathies in adults: pearls
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));See also http://emgnotes.blogspot.com/2010/01/dystrophinopathy-clinical-diagnostic.html and here are ten more pearls1. Many DMD patients now live into 30s and 40s as do carriers or those with BMD. DMD frequency is about 1:3500 whereas BMD is 1:15,000 to 1:35,000.2. Dystrophinopathy should be suspected in a child or adult with the following clinical signs/symptoms: progressive skeletal m...
Source: neurologyminutiae - February 20, 2010 Category: Neurologists Source Type: blogs

Using the rete list for collective curating online
Recently I announced a quiz to get more information about a historical syringe that a couple of friends had bought for me. This quiz was far from easy since we had no information on the syringe whatsoever. Medical Museion’s guest researcher and former chief physician Sven Erik Hansen was the first to make a suggestion on our Danish blog — he thought it might had been be used to treat haemorrhoids. Sven Erik’s was a qualified guess, but it seems like the area of expertise that we are dealing with here is rather odontology. Thomas put a query about the syringe on rete, the mailing list for c...
Source: Biomedicine on Display - February 20, 2010 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Jonas Paludan Tags: collections curation history of medicine history of technology material studies medical scientific instruments medical technology social networking historical syringe odontology Source Type: blogs

A Conversation with Ricki ( reported to me by Ricki’s Sister)
Ricki: Why does O. (her nephew, a 2 month-old baby) only drink and not eat?Sis: Because he has no teeth.(Ricki doesn’t believe, so sis shows her. O’s gums are toothless.)Ricki: So he has to go to the hospital right away with complete anesthesia, to...
Source: Deaf Village - February 18, 2010 Category: Other Conditions Authors: Beneath the Wings Tags: Hard-of-Hearing Speech VB Source Type: blogs

Universities, Bayh-Dole: Rules and Regulations – Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater
A recent editorial “Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bath Water” from Mark C. Rogers, M.D., M.B.A., former anesthesiologist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins and Editor-in-chief of the journal, Medical Innovation & Business notes that the whole purpose of the Bayh-Dole Act has been forgotten. The act, which gave the ownership of intellectual property discovered under government-sponsored research grants back to the university and the scientists who had gotten the grants, was to specifically encourage commercialization in the interests of expanding our national economy. Although he thinks that commercialization of bi...
Source: Policy and Medicine - February 18, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs

Journal Club – In Vivo Inhibition Dynamics
Inhibition has a powerful role shaping the network dynamics of the cortex, but most studies of inhibitory circuitry are done in brain slice or anesthetized animals. In Membrane potential dynamics of GABAergic neurons in barrel cortex of behaving mice, Gentet et al use two-photon imaging to guide dual, whole-cell patch clamp of inhibitory and excitatory neurons in the mouse barrel cortex. These mice are head fixed, but awake and naturally whisking. The authors can then see how the membrane dynamics of both subthreshold and suprathreshold voltages are correlated across pairs of cells. Differences between the correlatio...
Source: Brain Windows - February 18, 2010 Category: Neurologists Authors: andrewhires Tags: Imaging Voltage in vivo inhibition patch clamp two-photon whole cell Source Type: blogs

Thoughts from the Waiting Room
Both Ellie and Zack were in surgery, or at least preparing to go under the knife, as they say. My anxiety could be cut with a knife. I haven't felt these feelings for many years now; the last time was when my wife was having surgery. Of course, Ellie and Zack are my two Sheltie puppies, but I love my dogs, too.Ellie was being spayed; Zack was being neutered. I was very sorry that they had to endure these procedures, but as responsible dog-owners, it is really the best. They are six months old now, and starting to mature.They knew something was up when breakfast was not immediately served. They kept staring at us as we had ...
Source: All Ears - February 17, 2010 Category: Physician Assistants Authors: Rod Moser_PA_PhD Source Type: blogs

'How did this video get 4 1/2 stars?'
Last evening the following comment on one of my YouTube videos came across the transom. ................................................ It's my favorite so far this year. "How did this video get 4 1/2 stars?" clifyt? Flautist? Bueller? Anyone? "Mumbling & wrapper noises...?" I'm laughing really hard as "look at them yo-yo's, that's the way you do it" suddenly flits across my mind's ear. "You can hardly see anything he's doing (not exciting anyway)." I couldn't agree more. The whole point of making that video and its companion�...
Source: bookofjoe - February 16, 2010 Category: Anesthetists Authors: bookofjoe Source Type: blogs

Anesthesiology in Social Media: Selected Resources
Webicina, the first medical web 2.0 guidance service, published today Anesthesiology and Web 2.0, a free comprehensive resource containing all the web 2.0 tools from quality blogs and communities to online slideshows and mobile applications. It was designed to help medical professionals interested in anesthesiology find the best resources online. Please take a look at the table of contents: News and Information on Anesthesiology Anesthesiology in the Blogosphere Anesthesiology Podcasts and Intrerviews Anesthesiology Community Sites, FaceBook Groups and Forums Microblogging: Twitter and Friendfeed Anesthesiology Wikis Ane...
Source: ScienceRoll - February 16, 2010 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Bertalan Meskó Tags: Health Health 2.0 Medicine Medicine 2.0 PeRSSonalized Medicine Web 2.0 Webicina Source Type: blogs

Praise for Your Favorite Healthcare Professional?
Patients excel at slamming our doctors online. Sometimes our words are thoughtful, constructive criticism, and other times we are just spewing. While it is necessary to vent sometimes, we run the risk of losing credibility if that is all we do. I hope my blog contributes to constructive patient conversation. Still, I don’t think I take enough time to acknowledge who has done right by me. So that’s what I want to do today. Someone who’s done right by me: My anesthesiologist. My first surgery had scary recovery room complications due to anesthesia. I was totally freaked out and didn’t want a repeat perfor...
Source: Everything Changes - February 16, 2010 Category: Cancer Authors: Kairol Rosenthal Tags: Uncategorized doctor patient communication young adult cancer Source Type: blogs

Reversing the metaphor
Well before Atul Gawande's "Checklist" article, the example of aviation's quality/safety procedures had been commonly held out as a model for how health care should operate. Root Cause Analysis of adverse outcomes, no-fault reporting and the like were promulgated through health care, with highly positive effects. The safety record of surgical anesthesia is directly attributable to their adoption of aviation's procedures. This is, however, the first time I have seen a proposal that aviation should work more like health care: Oh my god, listing to the "service rep" talk in this video gives me the chills -- they have...
Source: Movin' Meat - February 16, 2010 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Source Type: blogs

The Risks of Hospitals Live-Tweeting Surgeries
Should hospitals send twitter "updates" on patients undergoing complicated catheter ablation procedures using "pre-approved" scripted story lines?In a far corner of the operating room Thursday, a Web producer and a cardiac expert with St. Vincent’s huddled over a laptop. They chronicled the procedure largely from a script that Oza had signed off on a day earlier. The procedure uses radio frequencies to scar parts of the heart. The scars block signals sent from a quartet of veins in the left atrium, signals that cause the heart to go haywire. The entire procedure is done using a catheter inserted into a patient’s groin ...
Source: Dr. Wes - February 15, 2010 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Tags: catheter ablation social media surgery Twitter Source Type: blogs

Will Microvolt T-Wave Alternans Be Incorporated Into Other Devices?
Cambridge Heart, Inc., a Tewksbury, Massachusetts firm, is reporting that it has completed the development of an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) module of its Microvolt T-wave Alternans (MTWA), and is now seeking FDA's 501(k) to start marketing its technology. According to MassDevice, the company is planning to shift its focus from sales to physicians and hospitals, so it can now start developing "an OEM version that other manufacturers could incorporate into their own products." As some of you might remember from our previous coverage of this technology, the Microvolt T-wave Alternans (MTWA) stress test, that "look...
Source: Medgadget - February 15, 2010 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Michael Source Type: blogs

SurgeXperiences 317 – Call for Submissions
There is no scheduled host for SurgeXperiences 317 (February 21st), but don’t let that keep you from making your submissions. If you would like to host edition #317 or any future editions, please contact Jeffrey who runs the show here. SurgeXperiences is a blog carnival about surgical blogs. It is open to all (surgeon, nurse, anesthesia, patient, etc) who have a surgical blog or article to submit. You are encouraged to submit your surgery related posts. The deadline for submissions to be included in the 316 edition is midnight on Friday, February 5th. Be sure to submit your post via this form.&#...
Source: Suture for a Living - February 14, 2010 Category: Plastic Surgeons Tags: surgeXperiences Source Type: blogs

A Valentine For Whistle-Blowers Done Wrong. Like Anne Mitchell. Like Debbie Crane. Like Mary Johnson. And Their Mothers.
I was profoundly grateful that Anne Mitchell, the Texas nurse who found herself defending criminal charges because she did her duty and reported a bad physician, was found NOT GUILTY earlier this week.I was actually terrified that she would be convicted. You see, after my own experience in the good-ole hometown, I've got no faith left in the "small town values" espoused by those who live in them. I've never understood the ability of some people to abandon what they know to be right and true for the dubious privilege of going along to get along. I've seen people in Asheboro do this my entire life, but I still don't get it.I...
Source: Dr.J's HouseCalls - February 14, 2010 Category: Pediatricians Source Type: blogs

Back to the future: Telemedicine as envisioned in 1924
Above, the cover of the April 1924 issue of Radio News, "circulation larger than any other radio publication," edited by Hugo Gernsback.It appears on page 50 of the December 2009 issue of Anesthesiology News, where it accompanies a continuation of Larry Beresford's front page story, "Telemedicine Helps Guide Long Distance Intubation."Alas, the picture's not included with the web version of the article.Before getting out my scanner, just for the heck of it I put "radio news april 1924" in the Google Images search box and lo and behold, there it was, the first result.T...
Source: bookofjoe - February 13, 2010 Category: Anesthetists Authors: bookofjoe Source Type: blogs

REJECTION 7
This is the seventh in a series of blogs on the topic of REJECTION"Intellectuals can tell themselves anything, sell themselves any bill of goods, which is why they were so often patsies for the ruling classes in nineteenth-century France and England, or twentieth-century Russia and America." - Lillian HellmanIt is often easier to believe a bad idea than a good idea. Bad ideas can be carefully designed to provide people with something they want to believe, unconstrained by reality. Canals on Mars - Well into the twentieth century, scientists believed that there were canals on the planet Mars. Optical lines criss-crossing M...
Source: Specified Life - February 11, 2010 Category: Pathologists Tags: rejection Source Type: blogs

Genius on the Edge – book review
I received a free copy of the book, Genius on the Edge: The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted by Gerald Imber, MD, a week ago. I have enjoyed reading it. The book is the biography of Dr Halsted, but also gives you a glimpse into the life of many other great medical figures: William Osler, William Henry Welch, Harvey Cushing, etc. (photo credit) In many ways it is a history of medicine/surgery in America. Halsted was very influential in bringing aseptic techniques to surgery and introduced the residency training system. He used his knowledge of anatomy to improve surgical...
Source: Suture for a Living - February 11, 2010 Category: Plastic Surgeons Tags: books Source Type: blogs

BehindTheMedspeak: Anesthesiologist Memory Stick
"The USB Doctor's joints bend at waist, knees and arms — remove the head (via surgery) to access the 2GB USB plug."Just 2GB?That oughta be enough to get through most cases, I guess.For the rest, hey, that's what residency is for.$23.99.[via Ray Earhart]
Source: bookofjoe - February 9, 2010 Category: Anesthetists Authors: bookofjoe Source Type: blogs

An anesthesiologist accused of making up trial data pleads guilty to federal charges
Originally published in MedPage Today by John Gever, MedPage Today Senior Editor A Massachusetts anesthesiologist accused of fabricating data in studies of pain drugs will plead guilty to federal criminal charges under an agreement with prosecutors. Scott Reuben, MD, a well-known pain researcher at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., was charged with one count of healthcare fraud. Early last year, the hospital announced that an internal audit had revealed that Reuben had made up research data out of whole cloth, affecting at least 21 published studies over a 15-year period. The criminal charge arose from one o...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - February 8, 2010 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Kevin Tags: Drugs and Pharma specialist Source Type: blogs

Liposuction – Shaping not Weight-loss
H/T to Jeff Frentzen, PSP Blog, for the link to this article “Large Volume Liposuction - Nip/Tuck Gets It Very Wrong” by Natalie Kita (December 22, 2009) I am not so silly as to miss seeing FX Network's plastic surgery-based drama Nip / Tuck for what it truly is: entertainment. I don't expect pinpoint scientific accuracy. However, when doing any sort of medical-based drama, doing it well requires that you must at least attempt to be somewhere in the realm of reality where the medical facts are concerned. Last week's episode broke that rule ten times over when it portrayed a large volume liposuction case in which 150...
Source: Suture for a Living - February 8, 2010 Category: Plastic Surgeons Tags: surgery Patient Safety liposuction Source Type: blogs

A Lawsuit Over Healthcare IT Whistleblowing and Wrongful Discharge: Malin v. Siemens Healthcare
"Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice." - Grey's lawAt an Aug. 2009 post "Why Siemens Healthcare Fails" I described medical informatics talent management issues that were apparent in a job posting at Siemens Medical Solutions, a company that a decade ago seemed to value medical informatics expertise. (They in fact wanted to hire me then, an offer former employees tell me I was fortunate to have rejected due to a better offer from pharma).I now note a July 2007 healthcare IT-related lawsuit against the same company (and its summary dismissal) of which I was unaware when I wrote the above p...
Source: Health Care Renewal - February 8, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: Healthcare IT failure Siemens Siemens Healthcare Murray Malin Source Type: blogs

SurgeXperiences 316 is Up
Dr DJ is the host of this edition of SurgeXperiences. Here is the beginning of this edition which you can read here. (photo credit) Welcome to the 316 Edition of SurgeXperiences - The Surgical blog carnival. I was overwhelmed with the number of submissions I got and it was nothing short of a party for me to read all the posts. The host of the next edition (317) has not been announced, but don’t let that keep you from making your submissions. Be sure to make your submissions by the deadline: midnight on Friday,February 19th. Be sure to submit your post via this form. SurgeXperiences is a blog carni...
Source: Suture for a Living - February 7, 2010 Category: Plastic Surgeons Tags: surgery surgeXperiences Source Type: blogs

Researchers Identify Racial Differences In Pain Treatment Outcomes
Findings from a retrospective analysis of a three-week treatment program for chronic pain revealed African Americans experienced worse outcomes compared to a matched group of Caucasians. The research was presented at the American Academy of Pain Medicine's 26th Annual Meeting in San Antonio."Our research showed important differences in treatment outcomes exist among African Americans with chronic pain," said Michael Hooten, MD and assistant professor of anesthesiology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. "The next step in this line of research will be to determine how treatment of chronic pain ca...
Source: Psychology of Pain - February 5, 2010 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs